Letters to the Editor
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This is Why I Remain a Republican
At least I can cling to the hope of reclaiming some part of my party once it implodes. Those guys on the other side of the aisle, the ones I want so much to like, have once again turned out to be nothing more than the Eunuch Choir. I'm not sure there's anything over there to save.
How the hell can a bunch of sociopaths cow the majority party in both houses? How can anyone cow an 80-year-old ex-President with absolutely nothing to lose?
There is only one way to stop this seemingly endless slide off the edge of the melting planet: slay the ghost of Woodrow Wilson, who continues to haunt the Hill and possess the bodies, minds and spirits of those Democrats I vainly hoped had ridden in to help rescue America from what's become of my own party. Hell, when you've got Chuck Hagel on your side there is no excuse, no possible reason for a collapse of this magnitude! There has to be some sort of genetic code that draws people into the Democratic party and, ultimately, causes them to turn themselves into human duds, little, faulty suicide bombers, kamikaze pilots in balsa wood planes, mules passing themselves off as donkeys but really just looking like a bunch of asses.
Good help the Republic! We have on one side the equivalent of the bus in "Speed", with Dennis Hopper at the wheel, and on the other side the passengers on that bus. We all know who Sandra Bullock is playing here. Where the hell is Kianu Reeves when we need him? And would it be impolite to laugh when Hopper gets his head knocked off? Because it's politeness that's killing the Democrats, We the People, and mainly our troops and the citizens of Iraq. Dubya does need his ass kicked, and the next person who threatens to do it shouldn't let his mind write a check his body can't cover.
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There are two insidious traditions that should be put to rest
a) Thou must not speak out against a standing president as an ex pres. Might Rome be a tad less scorched had a predecesor said "dude your fiddling sucks, and we need you right now?"
Of course, said Nero predecessor was already probably already dead so history-literate flamers, as well as those more versed in the leadership decorum of that wonderful empire, start your engines.
b) Progressives must wait and see how shite like this plays out.
If there's a wiff of blowback from someone in prominency speaking truth to undeserved power, we have to mobilize en masse and support them with feedback to slanted media outlets, and promise boycotts of there oh-so coveted sponsoring dollars. The nutty right learned long ago that shrill pre-emption will give you the podium. Until we do, we're just screaming in the echo chamber, just like me, right now.
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Collapse? You have to be up to fall down!
The Dems are a splinter group. The unifying issues that carry them to power are missing, the only rallying point is an individual who is a lame duck and kicked the snot out of them twice already.
It is not a lack of issues that could create a muster, it is that power in the Democratic Party is blind to them. The party is stagnant in a reactive mode, rather than a visionary one. At best they are responsive, but that is not an agenda.
An agenda is a plan for creating a future status quo. Confusion in the leadership is the result of not finding any vision or original or even interesting ideas. If any Democratic candidates spoke with vision, perhaps they could create some steam for their engine's boiler. It just seems like they are in a ring around it trying to push start it. But their energy is cancelled out because they are all pushing against the center. Besides, it's a 153 ton steam locomotive and a push start won't heat the boiler.
Somebody organize the party to get some wood!
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Bill, Are you Bushifying the war vote?
I agree. I'm surprised and saddened Carter backed off. But I think the Iraq Funding vote was a little more complicated.
A veto was assured. They couldn't override it. What then? Would Bush carelessly pull the troops out, in stubborn retribution to the dems? An overnight pull-out? What would have happened then?
I'll tell you what would have happened. The tragedy that is Iraq could be sound-bited into a dem failure. Iraq would no longer be Bush's failure. And that isn't just a political save face for the dems. It's a realistic response to the fact this administration plays only politics. It's a question of...if they play chicken with Bush, does he crash head on and blame it on the other car? Or do you expect Bush to at the last minute concede and compromise and do what is best for America and the Iraqis? You take too many vacations Bill....
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P.S.
P.S. Now I have to logoff and go watch your show. Not that your ego needs any boosting...but your show renews my soul. Stops me from crawling under my covers and not coming out again..again, stop taking so many vacations...
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I dunno, Bill
Carter's sudden about-face made me cry. Hardly anything in the world is sadder than watching an old man sell his soul - and for such a bargain bin price. Is anyone in this country both brave and decent?
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So what's the plan Salonistas?
Smash your Carter icons? Tear up your Jimmy T shirts? When you heroes turn out to be somewhat less than you expected, then what?
At least Mishima killed himself.
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Bingo
I remember saying that Bush was the worst president in my lifetime (I'm 45) not long into his first term and then upping it to the worst in history sometime before the 2004 election. The funny thing is, things have only gotten so much worse. I mean, Harriet Meyers, Katrina, NSA, Gonzales, federal debt, EVERYTHING about the war in Iraq...Has there been ANYTHING done right?
Can someone come up with something more damning than "the worst in history" because that applied 4 years ago, and he's gone downhill from there.
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Fricking Funny
Thanks Bill Maher, I needed that.
How is it that most letter writers here and the few liberal pundits in our media are all sick of Dems wimping out, and surely the Dems are aware of this, if nothing else - perception, and yet continue to wimp out? If you've ever been in a discussion or internet exchange with a Republican and you stand your ground, invariably when they run out of excuses for one of their obscene viewpoints, they fall back on "Well, I thought you liberals were supposed to be oh-so-tolerant and you're not!" The number of times this has happened to me or that I've observed it happening to others indicates that there's really a dynamic going on between the parties that most of us have probably internalized.
I'm too tired to give it any more thought at the moment, but suffice it to say that it's time to change the Dem Party self-perception to focus less on touchy-feelyness and more on a take-no-prisoners agenda for the working and middle classes. And then tell everyone across the aisle that their B.S. won't be tolerated anymore and that we'll be willing to learn to get along ... later.